Hello there, welcome to this video! Let's see how to add and fully
customize 2D text and titles with Vegas Pro 14!
Leave us comments in this video to improve our next guides for Vegas
Pro 14!
To add text inside your project, you have to use the Media Generators
window right above. If you have it closed, you can open it by going to
View, Window and then to Media Generators.
This window collects several ready templates, such as colored backgrounds,
noise, credit rolls and titles. As you can see, you have three different
kinds of titles you can add, that we will see through this video.
Once you choose the title, for example the (Legacy) Text, all its ready
templates will show on the right. Then, just drag and drop one on the
timeline to create a new text clip that uses the same template chosen.
Also, the Video Media Generators window opens, which is used to fully
edit your text just added. You can open this window anytime by clicking
on the Generated Media... icon on the clip itself.
Before going on editing text, make sure to place the text clip in the
right way. This is contained inside a Video Track, and behaves like any
other clip, that you can move and stretch as you like. But, if you want
this text to be shown above any picture or video, you must place the text
clip on a Video Track that is higher in the Track order.
Any text inside Vegas Pro is made by two main components: the title
itself, and its background. When there is full transparency on the
background, it is shown by a checkerboard. Let's see the kinds of text
you have and how to fully customize your text.
(Legacy) Text is a very simple and basic template, perfect to add fast
text that does not need special effects or animations.
Inside the Video Media Generators, you can use several tabs to edit your
(Legacy) Text, while you can check how the title changes by looking at
the main Preview. Just make sure to have your playhead placed on the text
clip.
Use the Edit tab, to change the main text properties, such as font style,
size, family and distribution. You will always edit the whole text
content, unless you select part of it.
Under Placement, you can move the text where you like most. Click and
drag it, or use the X and the Y coordinates.
Under Properties, you can improve the text appearance, such as the Text
Color, the overall Background Color, or advanced Text Properties below.
To change colors, you can directly click on the color mixer, or regulate
each of the RGB or the HSL channels. On the left, use the vertical bar to
regulate the transparency level of the color. Below, you can change the
color model to use, between RGB or HSL, or use the eyedropper to pick the
color you need directly from your screen.
Just remember that the Frame Size above not only sets the resolution of
your text clip, but also its background coverage.
Under Text Properties, use Tracking to regulate the distance between each
letter; Scaling to adjust the text size; and Leading to regulate the
distance between each of the new lines inside the text.
Under the Effects tab, you can apply advanced effects to make the text
appearance cooler. Outline adds some Outer glow, with the color and the
Feather and Width values applied. Shadows drops shadow with a fixed
color and Feather, with a distance fixed by both X and Y Offsets.
Deformation changes the text appearance depending on the Type and on the
Amount value.
You can enable or disable each effect to check how these have changed the
text appearance.
If you need to import animated text, you can use the Titles & Text
templates. This shows a different Media Generators interface, but indeed
it shares the same text properties seen for the (Legacy) Text, such as
the main Text Properties on top, the Text color, the Scaling through
Scale, and Location to drag and move text where you like. More below,
you can adjust the text background, and add any Outline and Shadow
effect.
Furthermore, you can add special animations under Animation, that will
last as much as your text clip is in time. However, if you stretch or
shorten the text clip, you will just change the its length, but not its
animation length as well. So, in order to keep text clip and animation
synchronized, remember to always Time Stretch the text clip, by
stretching its edges while holding CTRL down.
You can also reverse the text animation. Just right-click on the text
clip and go to Reverse. Remember that you must disable the Reverse effect
if you want to edit the text content in the future.
The most advanced piece of text inside Vegas Pro 14 is the ProType Titler.
This is a more advanced kind of title with respect to the (Legacy) Text
one. Its Media Generators window shows, on the left, all the text
properties and, on the right, a local preview where text is shown.
Here text is composed by two main parts: the text content and the text
block that contains it.
If you click on the text on the preview, you will work on the text block.
Move the text by clicking and dragging it, and scale it by dragging its
corner nodes. Use Lock Aspect to lock or unlock the text block aspect
ratio. To rotate text, just hover over the central circle, and click and
drag. The text will rotate around its Center, that you can move anywhere
if you need.
On the left, you can also add any Gradient color, Blur, Glow or Shadow
under the Effect tab, or regulate the Tracking and the Line spacing
inside the Layout tab.
To edit the text content instead, double-click on the text, and change
all the basic text properties under the Text tab, and the text appearance,
such as color, stroke and background under the Style tab. All these
modifications are applied on the selected text only.
When you finish editing the text content, just press the Escape key.
Even more, you can personalize each single word or letter by using
Navigate to Child above. This allows you to move, scale and rotate each
single part of your text. For example, if you have text that includes
more than a single word, you can click once on Nagivate to Child to
regulate each single word, and click once again to manage each single
letter. Use Navigate to Parent to go back in the hierarchy.
These are the three different title templates you can use inside Vegas.
You can also add credits by using the Credit Roll template.
Check out our video dedicated to Credit Rolls to know how to add and
use them!
Even more, inside Vegas Pro, you can also make 2D text and titles that
do change their appearance in time by using objects called keyframes.
Keyframes are special markers that are added inside a local timeline
inside the text itself, at the bottom of the Media Generators window.
These markers do save the text appearance on the instant of time they
are placed. So that, when you go from one keyframe to the following one
in time, you will go from the text appearance of the first keyframe to
the changed appearance on the second one. This actually creates an
animation on the text itself.
Keyframes can be added in different ways, depending on the kind of text.
For example, inside the (Legacy) Text, you can click on Animate below
to open the local timeline and start adding keyframes. In the Titles &
Text interface, you can click on the clock icon next to each text
property. Inside the ProType Titler, you can click on the spiral icon
next to each property.
No matter what kind of text template, the way to edit and manage the
keyframes is identical.
When you enable the keyframes, you will get one keyframe at the beginning
of the local timeline by default, that saves the text appearance you
start from. But, to make the text change in time, you need at least two
keyframes. So, if you move the marker in another instant of time, and
change the text properties, a new keyframe is added automatically, saving
your latest modifications. Have a look at the Preview to check and adjust
the animation between the two keyframes.
Click and drag the keyframes to move them in time: the more these are
put closer, the shorter the transition will be. To delete a keyframe
instead, place the playhead there, right-click and go to Delete. Whereas,
to change the text appearance saved by a keyframe, place the playhead
there and change again the text properties with the Media Generator.
Be careful of what shows the local timeline. When you apply keyframes on
the (Legacy) Text, you will have just one row, that includes any text
property. On The Titles & Text and the ProType Titler, you will have
one row for each single text property. In this case, the keyframe saves
the changes applied on the property it is referred to.
Thanks for watching this video! Watch our full guide to discover other
advanced features inside Vegas Pro 14!